Jeans Too Long? Here's How to Hem Flared Jeans & Keep the Original Hem
Wide-leg and flared jeans are in! They're such a great look, but not so awesome if the hem is too long and you’re dragging it on the floor. I’m so excited to teach you how to hem flared jeans and keep the original hem. Let’s get started!
Tools and materials:
- Sewing machine
- Denim needle or size 14
- Tex 60 polyester thread
- Serger (optional)
- Scissors
- Ruler/measuring tape
- Marking chalk
- Seam ripper
1. Determine the hem placement
The best way to hem flared jeans is to make sure you have the correct placement. In this "before: photo, you can see how long these otherwise well-fitting jeans are.
Stand up straight in front of the mirror. Make sure you’re wearing the shoes you plan to wear with the jeans. Check where they fall.
Fold up the jeans to where you want them to end. Readjust as needed and pin in place.
Remove the jeans, pin in the center of the fold, and mark where the jeans should end.
Flip the jeans to the right side facing and mark the spot.
2. Mark the new hem
In my case, the new hem had to be raised 2 inches.
Whatever your difference is, measure and mark the difference all around and add an additional ½ inch to mark the sewing line above the measurement line. The dotted line is the cut line and the line above is the sew line. Do the same for the other leg.
Now it’s time to sew the hem to the sew line, but there’s something important to know. Wide-legged and flared jeans get narrower as you go up the leg, so the new hem may be larger and longer than the new sew line. You will have to narrow the hem to match the new length.
By comparison, skinny jeans are the opposite - they are more narrow at the end and wider as you go up the leg, so you’d have to enlarge the new hem.
3. Modify the original hem
Measure the new sew line. Here in my jeans, it is 9¾ inches multiplied by 2 because there are 2 sides. That makes it 19½ inches.
When I measure the hem at the very bottom of the jeans, it is 20 inches or a ½-inch difference. I will need to take ½ inch off the original hem.
In order for it to match, I will need to open up the inseam. Open a little bit of the original hem first with the seam ripper. Then, from the sew line, sew in a ¼ inch, taking that ½ inch off the hem.
Sew the ¼-inch seam allowance about 1 inch past the original hem. Do the same for the other leg.
4. Sew the new modified hem
Cut at the cut line to cut off the original hem. Measure ¼ inch above the hem. Line up the original hem and the new sew line.
Trim any excess.
Jeans have a shorter front and longer back. Line them up to make sure the hem is lined up correctly.
The fabric will be a bit bulkier and thicker, so fold the seam allowances in opposite directions on the inseam to reduce the bulk. Sew the edge of the hem as close as possible to the hemline.
If you have a zipper foot, use it to get really close. Go very slowly over the thicker areas so you don’t break your needle.
Once it’s sewn it will look like this.
5. Conceal the raw edge
There are a few ways to conceal the raw edge of the new hem. You can serge the edge and glue it down to the inside with fabric glue. You can hand sew it up on the inside with a blind stitch.
Or, you can do what I’m showing you here, which is to open the seam, push the fabric in, and sew it up back.
Trim the excess fabric to be a ¼ inch so there is less bulk when pushing it in.
Use the seam ripper to remove all the stitches in the original hem at the bottom.
Once that’s opened, push whatever fabric is left inside.
At the inseam, it will be a bit too thick to resew the hem so I just cut out that very thick part.
Fold the hem back up.
I like to use a hammer on the thick spots to soften and break up the fibers.
Pin the outside, catching the extra fabric and the back of the original hem and line everything up on the outside so you don’t miss anything.
Use the Tex 60 polyester thread to sew up the hem on the outside.
Press the hems and it’s ready to wear!
How to hem flared jeans tutorial
How amazing do these jeans look? If you were thinking you couldn’t fix longer flared jeans, then this tutorial showing you how to hem your flared jeans and keep the original hem should help.
Let me know your thoughts or if you have any questions for me in the comment section.
How to fray jeans
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I have been cutting off my jeans for years with only being 5” 1” tall with a short inseam. I do basically the same thing but fewer steps. I even up the side seam to make the length adjustment (sewing the side to straighten out the slope). Then just turn up the length that needs to be shortened. Sewing on the inside right next to the old hem, then using an overcast stitch on your machine as close to the old hem stitch around the leg. Trim off the excess fabric, I then tack the new seam down (folding towards the bottom of the leg so the washed out look will show better).
I just bought pair of flare cut jeans that are 5 inches to long, that was the shortest they came in. Will loose about 1 1/2” of the flare to shorten them. This will turn them into more of a boot cut style but the price was great.
I need to start up a company for clothing for true short ladies. The fact the short cuts are for 5’ 5” and shorter they are still to long. Ugh!
Please put me at the top of your list for emails from your new company for short people!! I am 4’8” tall, need all the help I can get!!